Wondering where New Orleans' insiders are eating and drinking? It's easy to spot lines out the door, but some underlying trends are harder to see.
We took a data-driven look at the question, using Yelp and SafeGraph, a dataset of commercial points of interest and their visitor patterns, to analyze which local businesses have been seeing especially high review volumes this month.
To find out who made the list, we first looked at New Orleans' businesses on Yelp by category and counted how many reviews each received. Rather than compare them based on the number of reviews alone, we calculated a percentage increase in reviews over the past month and tracked businesses that consistently increased their volume of reviews to identify statistically significant outliers compared to past performance. Then we analyzed foot traffic data from SafeGraph to validate the trends.
Read on to see which spots are on a hot streak, right now.
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken
Open since July, this chicken shop and Southern spot that is an outpost of the well-known chain, which offers comfort food and more, is trending compared to other businesses categorized as "Southern" on Yelp.
Citywide, Southern spots saw a median 1.6% increase in new reviews over the past month, but Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken saw an 18.3% increase, maintaining a convincing 4.5-star rating throughout.
This franchise is not the only trending outlier in the Southern category: Trenasse has seen a 1.6% increase in reviews.
Located at 308 S. Diamond St. in Lower Garden District, Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken offers fried chicken plates served with slaw, baked beans and bread. For dessert, try the chess or pecan pies.
Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken is open from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.–10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Mambo's
Whether or not you've been hearing buzz about the French Quarter's Mambo's, the Cajun/Creole spot, which offers seafood and soul food, is a hot topic according to Yelp review data.
While businesses categorized as "Cajun/Creole" on Yelp saw a median 1.4% increase in new reviews over the past month, Mambo's bagged a 19.6% increase in new reviews within that time frame, with a slight upward trend from a four-star rating a month ago to its current 4.5 stars.
There's more that's trending on New Orleans's Cajun/Creole scene: Nolé has seen a 7.8% increase in reviews, and Mahony's Po-Boys & Seafood has seen a 6.7% bump.
Open at 411 Bourbon St. since June, Mambo's offers chicken and andouille gumbo, along with blackened redfish and crawfish etouffee.
Mambo's is open from 11 a.m.–1 a.m. on Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m.–2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Melba's
St. Roch's Melba's is also making waves. Open since 2012 at 1525 Elysian Fields Ave., the popular Cajun/Creole spot, which offers chicken wings and sandwiches, has seen a 1.8% bump in new reviews over the last month, compared to a median review increase of 1.6% for all businesses tagged "Sandwiches" on Yelp. As for foot traffic, Melba's saw visits almost double over the past month, according to SafeGraph data.
Here's more about the business from Yelp: "Melba's Old School Po Boys was founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We have been giving New Orleans an authentic casual Cajun dining experience since 2012. We hope to provide you a great experience and to add you to our long list of satisfied customers."
Melba's offers shrimp or smoked sausage po'boys, among the menu items. Also, try the chicken platter and fried fish plate. Over the past month, it's maintained a mixed 3.5-star rating among Yelpers.
Melba's is open 24 hours a day. According to SafeGraph, foot traffic is heaviest between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. and on Sundays and Saturdays, with a slowdown on Thursdays.
Ruby Slipper Cafe
The French Quarter's Ruby Slipper Cafe is the city's buzziest breakfast and brunch spot by the numbers.
The popular breakfast, brunch and traditional American spot, which opened at 204 Decatur St. in August 2018, increased its new review count by 7.6% over the past month, an outlier when compared to the median new review count of 1.7% for the Yelp category "Breakfast & Brunch."
Interested so far? Here's more about the business from its Yelp history section: "The original Ruby Slipper Cafe opened in May 2008 in Mid-City New Orleans. Our founders were driven by a deep desire to help revitalize their neighborhood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Over the last ten years, Ruby Slipper has expanded to several restaurants across the Gulf South, but New Orleans remains our home office and our inspiration."
Ruby Slipper Cafe offers specialties such as a corned beef Bennie and bacon praline pancakes.
Ruby Slipper Cafe is open from 7 a.m.–2 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m.–3 p.m. on weekends.
This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.
